IMO, this is a good example why HD sales are down...the dealer close to my house(only 4 mi) wants min. msrp on a new bike plus a high set up fee and a high freight fee or will let you walk. Their CVO bikes are marked up $3K over msrp.

I was talkin' to them about a new '10 denim black Street Glide and they want no less than msrp and $10K trade for my '09 Street Bob.

I luv my Street Bob...it ain't happening.

 

First of all, anyone that has been in sales at a H-D dealership for a while knows exactly who the local competition is and what kind of deals they will offer. They also know what kind of volume the competition has to deal with. When you are dealing from a limited amount of product you can also stand your ground a bit more on price. It also depends greatly (at H-D) what bike you are looking for. With dealer allotments, they can't necessarily stock just higher profit margin models or hot sellers without also stocking bikes that don't sell as well. BTW, insulting a customer with statements like "You can't afford this" is a proven sales tactic with some people. It makes some people say "Oh yeah-watch this-I'll pay cash right now" and others will get offended. You have to remember that H-D dealerships are big businesses that rely partly on emotion to make a sale.

 

It' difficult without having "been There". Taking your post at face value: and being one side of the story-

Two "identical" bikes can be $1,200.00 different if one has ABS & security and the other doesn't. 1st question is the "Apples and Apples" one.
There does seem to be some canabalism going on out in the Raleigh area and that's not really how it is supposed to work. However, NEVER an excuse to not be treated 1st class when in a Dealership. Very surprising salesman said "no". Did he not go to manager? Did he not offer something to help close the gap?
$1000 is substantial and does cut pretty deep into the commision. But damn - if a customer brought his Dad in to me - to buy a bike! - I would have a whatever it takes attitude and Johnny Ringo would get a $50.00 gift card for himself if Dad bought a bike, regardless of the price.

To your question - thoughts - what do I have that you want and how many do I have and how long have they been there? Ability and willingness to negotiate can be a little fickle - as I am learning But I would at least try to get where we need to be!
I would never treat a customer especially a referral and the guys Dad less that royalty. Price - could be a number of things. Surprising they didn't try to do something. As for attitude - no excuse.

Pat

 

There aren't a hell of a lot of Harley dealers in New Mexico, the closest being
about 80 miles apart in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, so when I started looking
to trade my 09 1200C in on a 2010 FXDC I was forced to start with phone calls
and emails.

I emailed dealers in Colorado, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico stating that I was
a serious cash buyer and described what I was looking for in detail as well as
sending them a link to the Harley's online "build-a-bike" page where I had the
EXACT bike (except for color) fully built up and priced out.

I think I emailed or called about a dozen dealers... wanna guess how many returned
my calls or emails? Exactly three..

Two were actually trying to make a sale; Durango, Colorado and Santa Fe. The
local dealer in Albuquerque did talk to me face to face, but basically never followed
through. Durango was good to work with, but they just couldn't supply the
bike I was looking for and, based on my color choice, (two tone red) were very
honest in telling me that they weren't sure when or if it would become available
to them. That wasn't the usual sales crap, it was an honest customer advisory.

Santa Fe backed up what Durango said about the color and went a step further by
asking me if I would consider a brand new, heavily discounted 09 as they were
going to have 4 in a tent sale and Harley was offering $1,000 instant cash credit
toward the bike or accessories. They also gave me a firm trade-in value on my
Sportster and some rough numbers on total purchase depending on which
of the 4 bikes I bought. All this was by phone and email.

I was pretty sure that I'd make one of the deals so I stripped all the accessories
like windshield, sissybar and rack, etc off the XL and rode it up to Santa Fe
early Saturday.

We wound up making a heavily discounted deal on an 09 FXDC that was still in
the box and they assembled it as I waited. I rode it home that afternoon, then
sent emails to Durango and Albuquerque saying I'd located a bike.

Santa Fe also followed through with phone calls for the first several weeks to
make sure that things were going well. What really made me feel damn good about
my purchase was the 1K service.

I was committed to a weekend long ride through Colorado that would put about 900
miles on the bike and get me home with about 1300 on the clock. Rather than
having me run almost an extra hundred miles on it coming home to Albuquerque
then shuttling back to Santa Fe, Santa Fe agreed to take the bike in straight
off the trip on a Sunday drop-off, something they normally don't do. My wife
met me at Santa Fe, I unloaded all the bags and crap that were slung all over
it, and drove home.


Now that bike was absolutely filthy as it had been a hell of a trip with all sorts
of weather "issues" so before they could even start work on it, they had to
really give it a bath. On top of that, because of pass closure (truck wreck),
we'd had to back-track almost 200 miles meaning that when I dropped the
bike off for its 1k service, it had well over 1,500 miles on it. Not a murmur
from them about all the excess mileage.

See this thread on the Road Trips forum for details..

https://www.hdforums.com/forum/road-...that-snow.html

Once again, over the next couple weeks they made a couple follow up calls to
make sure that I was happy with their service.

Several weeks later, the local Albuquerque dealer that I had originally bought
my Sportster from and I had notified about the FXDC purchase, called to tell
me that had a hot deal on a left over 2009 FXDC exactly the same as the one
I'd purchased from Santa Fe, only they wanted $1,500 more..

The salesman came THIS close to slamming the phone on me when I told him
(politely) that I'd already bought the same bike for much less and had put
almost 2,000 mile on it while they ignored me (well, I was polite, but I admit
that I did drive the nail home. ).

So Thunderbird in Albuquerque had the same bike in their tent sale and either
couldn't be bothered to work their contact list or figured that they'd be able
to strong-arm someone into buying a left-over at full MSRP. I guess that didn't
work so eventually they went back to their contact list, having never updated
it with my message that I'd found a bike (see if I ever bother with that courtesy
again), and then tried to make a deal with something like $200 off MSRP.

I'll bet that bike is either still there or they finally sold it for a price similar to
what Santa Fe had given me without BS.

How many other sales are they loosing because they're wrapped up in ego games?
This sort of sales tactic isn't about profitability, it's about can they make you
do what they want you to. That's so important to them that they'll literally turn
away sales rather than admit that they aren't winning.

Sorry for the semi-rant...

 

Thanks for the post. I see now that yeah, he might have seen my father in law as a pain because yes, he was asking if he could take anything off.

Crazy thing is, I had brought my father in law in three times before to sit on bikes, etc. It was at this dealership that he made up his mind on the bike he wanted.

One other thing. The salesman left my father in law sitting on the bike. I had to hold the forks so he could feel the forwards. the kicker....we were the ONLY people in the dealership.

The whole thing was just bizarre. I was the salesmans bud the week previous. He hardly said a word yesterday. So maybe some other things were going on. Or maybe like you said, he felt it was a waste of time.

Either way the story ended well. My father in law is sitting on a brand new bike (not riding today because we are getting dumped on) and he is ecstatic. First Harley and he is 53 years old. Now I've got to keep working on my best friend who has a hankering for a Rocker....

 

I have seen that so very many times. My "best friend" until the papers are signed, then they don't even know me.

On a seperate note, I think the end-of-the-month thing comes into play, at least at some car dealers it does. Sometimes they need some sales to make the monthly figures look good.


edit: Oh crap, this was the end-of-the-month. LOL Never mind,....... (must have made his quota).

 

It's very simple - salesmen sell. Selling includes the ability to talk to a customer and convince them to buy, even if you are unable to haggle on the price - and have the customer feel good about it. Anyone who walks away from a customer is not a salesman.

Part of all that is being honest and polite with the customer and suggesting they take the deal elsewhere when appropriate.

I would suggest you write a polite letter to the first dealer, where you bought your bike, explaining your experience and how it drove you to go to another dealer to make the purchase.

 

I went to Ray Price with the intentions of buying a low rider in sunglow blue, they had it on the floor ready to go.
My local dealer, 130 miles from Raleigh didnt have one and didnt know when he would.
Not a single salesperson would talk to me so I left, like you, no one else in the showroom.
I have been there 4 or 5 times since and this is after 3 harley purchases and no one takes me serious, like im a waste of time.
The last visit I had a couple of co workers with me and one guy wants one bad, but he dosent even have money to pay all his bills, guess what?
The damn sales guy spent over an hour with him showing him bikes and talking about financing and blah, blah, blah.
My coworker told him he didnt want to fill out a credit app and the guy kept on.
I dont know what goes through some of these sales guys minds but that one wasted a lot of time for nothing, would never talk to me when I went in and I have purchased 3 harleys! Funny stuff right there.
Now I have never purchased a bike from sheltons but the smithfield store has givin me some great discounts on accessories.
And dont get me started on my experiances with Rocky mount!

 

I bought my first HD from Rocky Mount...was treated great, second at Sheton's in Goldsboro, Was treated great and still am. Ray Price treated me very well when i was interested in a Ulysses and acted like they wanted my business., No BS, the guy talked to me straight up...Like i said earlier, They all have there faults and they don't discount a lot but i feel i was treated very good by SHelton's and the service after the sale, (parts, clothing, service) Good enough to spend $19000.00 on a bike. I am a regular and they always call me by my first name. Not sure if i will by my next one there but the way i get treated when i walk in will make a big difference. There are major Azzwipes everywhere at any given time but that is not a good excuse to treat a guy like they did. I i was you J.Ringo i would tell either Shelton Davis or Ray Price (wichever the dealer was) why you didn't buy there. The like or want to hear crap like that that gets them or loses them sales...

 

Rude doesn't bring the customer back next time.